Respect all round for a very boldly run race
Mark Khan grabs another Grade 1 in sensational return.
FAST FILLY. Mighty High and Mark Khan after their stunning victory in the Grade 1 Allan Robertson Championship at Scottsville on Saturday.
Three-year-old Bold Respect came of age at Scottsville on Saturday with a superb pillar-to-post victory in the R1-million Grade 1 Tsogo Sun Sprint. With Corne Orffer in the irons, the 11-2 second favourite powered up the energy-sapping Scottsville hill to win by 1.75 lengths from a determined Pinnacle Peak (10-1) under Craig Zackey, with Sunset Eyes (10-1) in third.
Trained by Brett Crawford, Bold Respect won a R1-million sales race on the 2017 Sun Met Day as a two-year-old and was there after plunged into the hurly-burly of some keenly contested sprint features.
He seldom finished far o the winner but couldn’t register his next win until his prep race for this event.
That victory at Scottsville a month ago proved a perfect rehearsal.
This son of Bold Silvano shot out of the 1200m gates and set a cracking pace. Pinnacle Peak was in attendance, followed by Naafer, Sunset Eyes, Attenborough, Kasimir and London Call.
Sunset Eyes, Pinnacle Peak and Kasimir all made determined efforts in the closing stages, but there was no catching Bold Respect.
Scottsville’s annual day of speed – with four consecutive Grade 1 1200m sprints making up the Jackpot – draws the cream of South Africa’s sprinters, young and old. With the convergence of talent from all corners, there are inevitably upsets on the day.
The trouble for punters started in the Allan Robertson Championship for juvenile fillies. Mighty High, at 11-1 for trainer Johan Janse van Vuuren, got up in the final strides to beat 5-1 favourite Celtic Sea.
The victory continued former champion jockey Mark Khan’s triumphant return from retirement – a second Grade 1 win in a matter of weeks, following his emotional triumph aboard Hero’s Honour in the SA Derby at Turffontein.
Another “comeback kid” delivered the next blow in the Grade 1 Tsogo Sun Gold Medallion. Veteran trainer Tobie Spies, recently returned to the training ranks after an absence of many years, welcomed 28-1 shot Van Halen into the winner’s circle after the Oratorio gelding pipped 26-10 favourite Cue The Music – another son of Oratorio.
Dennis Drier has been the scourge of Scottsville’s sprint day, seldom leaving the Pietermaritzburg course without a Grade 1 trophy in the bag.
This year it was for the South African Fillies Sprint (1200m, R750,000) as Sommerlied, a four- year-old filly by Var, scooted to a 1.50 length victory under Sean Veale – at the surprisingly long odds of 15-1.
